More than 90% of the private sector investment that came to Hyderabad was from entrepreneurs from Andhra region known for their entrepreneurship and business acumen. Some of these private enterprises have grown global. For example, out of Rs. 55,000 crores of software turnover (domestic plus exports) from Andhra pradesh for the year 2012-13, Hyderabad city itself accounted for Rs, 54,800 crores. Andhra and Rayalaseema iegions have essentially remained as agrarian districts.
All the institutions of higher learning and health care are also located in this area. About 50% of the States own revenues are collected in HMDA area. This
was not the case, for instance, in the case of new States that were formed , viz', Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh.
lf the division goes through, the Andhra state after division will optimistically get only Rs 40,000 cr and the Telangana state will get Rs 70,000 cr if the revenues of 2012-13 are apportioned on the basis of district wise accruals, while Andhra area comprises 60% of the geographical area and population of AP. There is no way these two will be able to implement the welfare schemes and also meet the expenditure on salaries or pensions.
More so, the residual AP Part.
In these days of disinvestment, can we expect the government to invest in major public sector undertakings in the residual AP region? With the removal of licensing law, how can Central Government direct the flow of private investments to any state?
How can Central Government ensure the 50% share of software business to Andhra state, particularly when the Central Government, adding insult to injury, recently decided to set up lTlR in HMDA area, where there already exists huge software activity? Without all these high profile economic activities and given the complete bankruptcy of the central Government how do we get money to run the new state? Will Andhra remain only an agrarian state forever?
As for the lrrigation scenario a peculiar situation prevails in Andhra Pradesh where several projects are conceived and executed on the basis of surplus waters. Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Khammam districts of Telangana region, Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapuram and Chittoor districts of Rayalaseema -region, Praksam district of Andhra region are plagued by eternal drought and fluoride problems. To solve the problems of people of these areas Government of Andhra Pradesh started constructing huge projects on Krishna river like Bheema, Nettempadu, Kalwakurthy and SLBC in Telangana region, Telugu Ganga, Galeru -Nagari, Handri - Neeva in Rayalaseema region and Veligonda in Andhra region based on surplus waters of Krishna . Nearly 70 to 80% of the works of these projects were completed by spending around Rs.40,000 crores of public money.
The Bachawat Tribunal too allowed Andhra Pradesh to utilize flood waters because AP is a lower riparian state and suffers immensely when monsoon fails. lf a new state is created in between, all these projects will turn into monuments as they have no guaranteed allocation of water.
As far as the Godavari River is concerned, unless Bhadrdchalam revenue division is restored back to East Godavari district, the Polavaram project can never become a reality.
The Centre is unable to resolve the Kaveri disputes where the water is assured and allocated on the one hand and how does it plan to resolve the above issues with regard to Andhra Pradesh.
The Telangana protagonists have been demanding a Telangana state that never existed as an exclusive political entity at any point of time in the history. It is to be understood that Andhra Pradesh was not the only State that was created on linguistic basis in 1956 along with three others in South India. Again, it is not just the Telangana region that was merged to create a separate State, several other provinces too were either merged or demerged to create new ltnguistic states as part of countrywide States Reorganization on linguistic basis. For instance, from the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad, the Telangana region comprising 10 districts were merged with Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh, while the Marathi speaking 6 districts of Maratwada were merged with Maharashtra and 3 Kannada speaking districts of Hyderabad state were merged with Karnataka state.
Thus, there is absolutely no truth in the argument that persons from Andhra region have forcibly got Telangana merged in the then newly created Andhra Pradesh. In fact, Andhra Pradesh as a State was created only after passing resolutions in the assemblies of Andhra State and Hyderabad State and cannot therefore be said to have been created against the will of the people of Telangana. The Srikrishna committee has clearly established that the Telangana region has indeed taken the lion's share of the incremental growth and development post formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. lf sentiment of Telangana for division has to be respected, the sentiment of other two regions for keeping'the state united has also to be respected.
The very Central government is sitting on a financial powder keg and will not be in a position to compensate the residual AP region after the creation of
Telangana State.
As far as the Revenues of the Central Government are concerned, the situation is very alarming. As per Union Finance Ministry's latest Monthly Economic Report , the Revenue receipts for April-July 2013 were only Rs 1.76 lakh crores, recording a meager growth rate of 4.3% against 23.1% for the corresponding
period last year. What a fall! This will definitely impact the flow of revenues from the Centre to States. What is even more shocking is, in absolute terms, the revenue deficit at Rs 2.77 lakh crores for April-July 2013 is more than the total Revenue Receipts of Rs 1.76 lakh crores for April-July 2013.
The only consideration that the Union Cabinet has shown to Andhra region is to allowit to have its state capital in Hyderabad for a ten years period' Who will
give the money to replicate Hyderabad city in Andhra region in just ten years? It is like forcibly vacating the owner of a house, which he had so laboriously
built for a period.of 60 years, and give him permission to stay in the house for ten years i.e. till he completes construction of new house, which is any way
impossible!! There is no money with Central Government to give to Andhra state to construct the new capital. There will be no money with Andhra state to
meet its non-plan expenditure, let alone creating a capital and other infrastructure, which it took 60 years in Hyderabad to'create.
God knows as to why the UPA Governrnent is so annoyed with Andhra region! ls it because they returned 22 Congress MPs out of the total strength oI 25
MPs in 2009?
The division of Andhra Pradesh after 57 years of its creation, particularly when people of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions are tooth and nail opposed to such division, is therefore fraught with serious political consequences not only within AP but also for the whole country. AP is among the fastest developing states in the country having third highest GDP in current terms, next only to UP and Maharashtra. All the three regions have registered good growth.
If sentiment is the reason alone for bifurcation, then we will be ending up creating more States than we united in 1947 to put in place our democratic lndia. ln a recent Presidential reference under Article 143 of the Constitution of India regarding the alienation of natural resources, the Supreme Court clearly said that as long as there is a policy in place, they will not interfere. On the other hand, if the Government is following the policy of pick and choose, they would definitely interfere. It therefore follows that even in respect of creation of new states, the Central Government should come up with a policy and conform to that. Otherwise, the Supreme Court has every right to intervene in any decision that the Central Government may take in respect of creation of new states.
In the light of these facts, we earnestly request you to intervene and do justice to Andhra Pradesh.
Yours faithfully
YSRCP slams TDP- Janasena for attack on Harika, questions silence of government
